Waihopai - a satellite spy base near Blenheim in the South Island
of Aotearoa/New Zealand. The base is an integral part of the international
intelligence network run by the US National Security Agency (NSA)..

WHAT IS THE ANTI-BASES CAMPAIGN (ABC)?

We are a Christchurch-based group with links and
members all over Aotearoa/New Zealand. We concentrate on the foreign military
and intelligence installations in New Zealand.There are three - the US "Deep Freeze"
military base at Harewood (Christchurch Airport);
and the "NZ" intelligence gathering installations at Tangimoana
(Manawatu) and Waihopai (Marlborough), which are simply outposts of
American Intelligence. We have specific demands on all three – that
Harewood be demilitarised; and the others closed ASAP. We demand the abolition
of the NZ Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), which operates
Waihopai and Tangimoana. We have built up information on the whole gamut of
the ongoing US-NZ military and intelligence relationship.

WHAT DOES
THE ABC DO?

We engage
in research, education, publication and direct action. We have run campaigns
on all these three installations, concentrating on Harewood and Waihopai.
Historically, we have organised actions such as the 1990 Touching the Bases
Tour, in which people from New Zealand and throughout the Asia/Pacific region
visited all three bases. In the past, we have sent representatives to actions
in Australia, the Philippines and the US. We have hosted overseas experts
here, most recently Canadian ex-spy, Mike Frost, in
2001. We actively network with a wide range of groups.

We have campaigned and made submissions on all the various pieces of legislation
giving expanded powers to the spies, such as the Terrorism Suppression Act,
which takes NZ in the direction of a police State; the Crimes Amendment No.
6 Act, which gives the Police, SIS and GCSB extended powers of electronic
spying; the GCSB Act, which entrenches this agency; and the various SIS Amendment
Acts, which extended the powers of the SIS and exempted them from any legal
action which may have arisen from the Choudry case
having exposed their illegal actions dating back decades.Ever since we first discovered plans to
build Waihopai, back in 1987, we have campaigned against it, organising numerous
non-violent direct action national demonstrations. We research all aspects
of these bases, specialising in Harewood and Waihopai, and have developed
an expertise in researching NZ and allied intelligence agencies. We publish
Peace
Researcher, an authoritative journal
on these subjects, and a record of our activities.Sixty issues of Peace Researcher have been published
since 1983.